It seems to me incredulous that we are so many decades since modern western civilization discovery of hallucinants and have conducted so little calm, pragmatic, unbiased large scale research. There is, by my estimation, a primary reason for the phobia and bigoted prejudice against research and that reason is (generally) some fear of loss of power, control and economic levers by the state due to psychological alteration. This hypothesis of this fear I believe is based loosely in the industrial-military complex idea that a mind altered or mind explored individual might weaken the bonds of conformity, tribalism, levels of violent warrior willingness, consumerism and allegiance to prescribed norms and ambitions. Let’s consider at a very summary level what we are foregoing by giving into this neurotic fear:
1) We know so little about the human mind/brain. We lose millions to depression, suicide, schizophrenia, PTSD — we are Prozac planet. In controlled test lab circumstances we have found far less danger in common hallucinants than say manned space flight or military operations conducted as ordinary peacetime maneuvers. Given our limits around understanding mental illness why would we inhibit uncharted doctoral thesis exploration that reasonably uses defined process and observation tied to fortifying or discounting hypothesis for gaining insight from perception altered experimentation?
2) We are already partially in virtual reality and artificial intelligence given our current technology — and it is accelerating. How dare we plow forward on this front without urgent and ambitious experimentation regarding the current perception and intelligence sources of the biological cocktail we unavoidably carry in our own mind-body? We’re creating vulnerabilities of exploration without sending scouting parties to gain broader insights into other areas of the uncharted territory.
3) Thanks to uncontrolled large scale recreational and unscientific use of these substances we have ample evidence that are no yet quantified dangerously high mental or physical risks in controlled conditions. The hypocrisy (examples) is that we are unconcerned with high levels of radiating energy from cell phone systems, experiments in cancer treatment or experimentation with chemical compounds for new generation batteries not to mention our lack of action on possible climate change (and so forth) — while handwringing about an area that is a social taboo far more than some practical threat.
Why have I written this Medium response? Because I am a human faced with mortality, potential untreatable psychological disorders and see a suffering world. I am for spiritual, psychological, philosophical, medicinal, physiological and technological exploration to improve our condition. Creating these emotionally charged barriers against investigating a highly publicized area of unknowns with so many antidotal claims of potential gains seems frustratingly ludicrous.
